Thread: Lottery gives residency to fortunate immigrants

Posted on Tue, Nov. 2, 2010

Lottery gives residency to fortunate immigrants

By Michael Matza
Inquirer Staff Writer

Inside a passport-photo van posted at the federal immigration office in Philadelphia, Annie Mehdeh took her shot at perhaps the most important game of chance she will ever play.

She uploaded her head shots and personal data into a computer, then pressed her palms together and prayed. If the 58-year-old Liberian wins, she will be allowed to stay in America forever, as will her teenage daughter.

Mehdeh had just entered the U.S. government's Diversity Visa Lottery, a 15-year-old sweepstakes that annually grants permanent residency to 50,000 foreigners, some here temporarily but most waiting abroad with high hopes of immigrating. By Wednesday, the 2010 deadline, about 12 million will have registered, free of charge, at the State Department's website. Winners will be notified in July.

The "green card lottery," as it is popularly known, targets countries with low rates of immigration to the United States.

Born in Liberia and uprooted by civil war, Mehdeh, a home-health-care aide, has lived in Southwest Philadelphia since 2000 under "temporary protected status." A humanitarian visa, it grants permission to work but does not confer permanent residency.

To stay here indefinitely, Mehdeh needs a green card, a prize for which people often wait decades.

Winning the lottery speeds the process exponentially. So Mehdeh decided to try her luck, paying to go online at the Rosa Photo van near 16th and Callowhill Streets because she doesn't own a computer.

The lottery allows winners to include children under 21, and to eventually sponsor other family members. So with her entry, Mehdeh provided data and a picture of her 19-year-old daughter, Lucy Garmondeh, who lives in Liberia's capital, Monrovia.

Lucy was born during Liberia's civil war "in a house with no food and no water," said Mehdeh, who has long dreamed of giving her the advantages of life in America.

"If you win, your life can improve immeasurably," said Robert Braun, owner of Immigration Information Services and the Rosa van. "It's the best lottery in the world."

A congressional amendment to the Immigration Act of 1990 created the lottery, with the first drawing in 1995. Entrants picked by computer become eligible for admission to America the following year.

Because the goal is diversity, individuals from overrepresented countries are ineligible. Canada, China, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Haiti, India, Jamaica, Mexico, the Philippines, South Korea, Taiwan, the United Kingdom (except Northern Ireland), and Vietnam were excluded from the first lottery - and for the most part still are.

But geopolitics and migration have brought changes to the list. Taiwan became eligible in 2002, while Colombia, Pakistan, Brazil, Peru, Ecuador, and Guatemala became ineligible over the years. Serbia, Montenegro, Kosovo, and East Timor became eligible as new nations. Poland and Russia lost eligibility, then were reinstated; in 2007, Poland was deemed ineligible again.

Like the college admissions process, more applicants are selected than are admitted. About 100,000 are notified via the Internet that their confirmation numbers were picked. That pool is whittled down to the 50,000 through State Department vetting. No single country may receive more than 7 percent of the visas.

In the 2009 lottery that admitted immigrants this year, about 70 percent came from Africa, Asia, South and Central America, and the Caribbean.

The nation with the highest number admitted this year was Ethiopia (3,829), followed by Nigeria (3,720) and Egypt (3,336).

The lottery's proponents say that promoting diversity helps strengthen America. Critics, however, contend that the process undermines fairness in the immigration system.

For example, highly skilled foreign workers whose talents are needed in the U.S. job market are admitted on temporary visas, with no guarantee of renewal. Yet, lottery critics point out, 50,000 people picked in a yearly drawing get the unearned gift of permanent resident status.

Given the threat of terrorism bred abroad, opponents also have expressed concerns that the lottery could be susceptible to fraud.

There have been sporadic attempts by Congress to curtail funding for the lottery, but it has survived.

Contact staff writer Michael Matza at 215-854-2541 or mmatza@phillynews.com.

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/local ... rants.html

Lucy was born during Liberia's civil war "in a house with no food and no water," said Mehdeh, who has long dreamed of giving her the advantages of life in America.

Another third-world SOB story. Let's bring them all here! Time to pull the plug on green card lottery...

Originally Posted by NoBueno

Lucy was born during Liberia's civil war "in a house with no food and no water," said Mehdeh, who has long dreamed of giving her the advantages of life in America.

Another third-world SOB story. Let's bring them all here! Time to pull the plug on green card lottery...

i actually like the green card lottery system ... it shows the worlds poor that america is still accessable to them , if even only by chance ...

The lottery's proponents say that promoting diversity helps strengthen America. Critics, however, contend that the process undermines fairness in the immigration system.

For example, highly skilled foreign workers whose talents are needed in the U.S. job market are admitted on temporary visas, with no guarantee of renewal. Yet, lottery critics point out, 50,000 people picked in a yearly drawing get the unearned gift of permanent resident status.

I also like the diversity lottery Critics speak of fairness of this lottery? How fair is it to allow illegal aliens to continue breaking our laws by being here? Let's start deporting those here illegally and then let's talk about fairness.

Originally Posted by marquis

Originally Posted by NoBueno

Lucy was born during Liberia's civil war "in a house with no food and no water," said Mehdeh, who has long dreamed of giving her the advantages of life in America.

Another third-world SOB story. Let's bring them all here! Time to pull the plug on green card lottery...

i actually like the green card lottery system ... it shows the worlds poor that america is still accessable to them , if even only by chance ...

I'm sure this is true...but i'm of the opinion we have enough of the world's poor already here. We don't need anymore, especially when 20 million illegals (also poor) remain in this country with little fear of being deported. In addition, the rational behind the green card lottery was to increase "diversity."

So who's going to let us know when we've accomplished "diversity?"

Originally Posted by NoBueno

Originally Posted by marquis

Originally Posted by NoBueno

Lucy was born during Liberia's civil war "in a house with no food and no water," said Mehdeh, who has long dreamed of giving her the advantages of life in America.

Another third-world SOB story. Let's bring them all here! Time to pull the plug on green card lottery...

i actually like the green card lottery system ... it shows the worlds poor that america is still accessable to them , if even only by chance ...

I'm sure this is true...but i'm of the opinion we have enough of the world's poor already here. We don't need anymore, especially when 20 million illegals (also poor) remain in this country with little fear of being deported. In addition, the rational behind the green card lottery was to increase "diversity."

So who's going to let us know when we've accomplished "diversity?"

eliminating the green card lottery would crush countless numbers of people the world over ... just think of how much american citizenship means to anyone who wins that lottery , and think of the good PR we get as a country with all of their friends and relatives back home ..

of course we need to remove the 20 million illegal immgrants , and i do agree with you that we have WAY too many poor people right now , but i don't see why WE should have to change our ways because of illegal immgration ... we need to focus our efforts on attacking the REAL source of our immgration problems , and it's NOT the visa lottery , but massive and unchecked illegal immgration ..

Originally Posted by marquis

Originally Posted by NoBueno

Originally Posted by marquis

Originally Posted by NoBueno

Lucy was born during Liberia's civil war "in a house with no food and no water," said Mehdeh, who has long dreamed of giving her the advantages of life in America.

Another third-world SOB story. Let's bring them all here! Time to pull the plug on green card lottery...

i actually like the green card lottery system ... it shows the worlds poor that america is still accessable to them , if even only by chance ...

I'm sure this is true...but i'm of the opinion we have enough of the world's poor already here. We don't need anymore, especially when 20 million illegals (also poor) remain in this country with little fear of being deported. In addition, the rational behind the green card lottery was to increase "diversity."

So who's going to let us know when we've accomplished "diversity?"

eliminating the green card lottery would crush countless numbers of people the world over ... just think of how much american citizenship means to anyone who wins that lottery , and think of the good PR we get as a country with all of their friends and relatives back home ..

of course we need to remove the 20 million illegal immgrants , and i do agree with you that we have WAY too many poor people right now , but i don't see why WE should have to change our ways because of illegal immgration ... we need to focus our efforts on attacking the REAL source of our immgration problems , and it's NOT the visa lottery , but massive and unchecked illegal immgration ..

America gives untold billions in aid to third-world nations all over this globe. We are the fist to come to the aid of others in times of crisis and natural disaster! The United States of America supports half the world already in one way or another. What better "PR" is there than that!

If the lives of people all over the world are going to be "crushed" because we eliminate the green card lottery, then we probably don't want them here anyway.

Again, we have millions of poor Americans in this country that need assistance. We do not need to import more poverty from third-world nations, bad PR or not.

Until citizens have decent jobs I'm for stopping all immigration until we can absorb the 80,000 refugees Obama ok'd this year,the 125,000 a Mth who have been given green cards and now the 50,000 lottery winners.

I really worry about over population and its impact on our country. Everyone needs to watch the New Gumball video at www.numbersusa.com to understand how unbridled immigration is hurting America.

My local news reported scientist are working on how to recycle urine because we are running low on water in many parts of our country. In fact they said AZ is already experimenting with this idea.

Originally Posted by USPatriot

. . . My local news reported scientist are working on how to recycle urine because we are running low on water in many parts of our country. In fact they said AZ is already experimenting with this idea.

This has beeen done for years in other areas. They do in space too.

Sewage becomes drinking water at Calif. facility ...

Jan 11, 2008 ... The new purification system at the Orange County Water District headquarters ... At $550 an acre-foot, the recycled water is slightly more ...

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/n ... aim11.html

Originally Posted by NoBueno

Originally Posted by marquis

Originally Posted by NoBueno

Originally Posted by marquis

Originally Posted by NoBueno

Lucy was born during Liberia's civil war "in a house with no food and no water," said Mehdeh, who has long dreamed of giving her the advantages of life in America.

Another third-world SOB story. Let's bring them all here! Time to pull the plug on green card lottery...

i actually like the green card lottery system ... it shows the worlds poor that america is still accessable to them , if even only by chance ...

I'm sure this is true...but i'm of the opinion we have enough of the world's poor already here. We don't need anymore, especially when 20 million illegals (also poor) remain in this country with little fear of being deported. In addition, the rational behind the green card lottery was to increase "diversity."

So who's going to let us know when we've accomplished "diversity?"

eliminating the green card lottery would crush countless numbers of people the world over ... just think of how much american citizenship means to anyone who wins that lottery , and think of the good PR we get as a country with all of their friends and relatives back home ..

of course we need to remove the 20 million illegal immgrants , and i do agree with you that we have WAY too many poor people right now , but i don't see why WE should have to change our ways because of illegal immgration ... we need to focus our efforts on attacking the REAL source of our immgration problems , and it's NOT the visa lottery , but massive and unchecked illegal immgration ..

America gives untold billions in aid to third-world nations all over this globe. We are the fist to come to the aid of others in times of crisis and natural disaster! The United States of America supports half the world already in one way or another. What better "PR" is there than that!

If the lives of people all over the world are going to be "crushed" because we eliminate the green card lottery, then we probably don't want them here anyway.

Again, we have millions of poor Americans in this country that need assistance. We do not need to import more poverty from third-world nations, bad PR or not.

right ... so your saying that we should WORRY about the visa lottery program ? that we should devote an OUNCE of our enegery into calling our elected officals over it , or discussing it amoung friends and family memebers while our country like the tiantaic has a GUSHING wound pouring in millions of illegal immgrants every year ?

50 K people is insignant compared to the PROBLEM , and taking your eyes off of the REAL problem will only hurt our cause ...

we could debate about this for HOURS , but it's not imporant .. stopping ILLEGAL immgration is where all of our focus should lie ..

EDIT : whoops , i suppose i should make my thought proccess more clear ... i'm not having a problem with the visa lottery program because in my mind i'm thinking of a us MINUS 20 million people ...

but yeah if we can't get a hold of illegal immigration , i would at the least want all legal immgration to come to a halt ..